I'm working on year 4 and I have a chunk of time that I need to fill, so I need some feedback on fluff chapters. Do you like team bonding stuff, dates, patrols, her going to see her parents, or is there something you want to see that I haven't done yet? Do you have any suggestions for someone for Mallory to date? I'm really struggling here, so I would really appreciate some feedback. Anyway, hope you like the chapter, and please, please, please review!
Six months later:
"Gar, come back here!" Megan called, laughing as she chased her little brother around the room.
"Only if you can catch me," he replied, changing into a bird and flying up to the rafters. Megan flew after him, but she was unable to catch him.
Mallory grinned, watching the scene from the kitchen counter. She found herself thankful that Peter couldn't fly. He was hard enough on the ground. Finally, Megan and Gar landed and the boy turned into the half monkey body he and Peter had come up with, his tail curling up so it was out of the way.
"I think it's time for a haircut," Mallory observed when he got closer. "And maybe a shave, too."
Gar laughed and sat on the stool next to her. "Nope," he said.
Mallory grinned and ruffled his hair affectionately. "So, what do you want for your birthday?" she asked. He was turning ten this year, and since it was going to be his first birthday without his mom, the team was playing it by ear. They had a big party planned, but they were also prepared to just make it a quiet event.
"I don't know. I haven't really thought about it," he told her.
Mallory rolled her eyes. "That's what you said last week. There's only two weeks before your birthday, I need to know what to get you. And Peter's no help, he won't tell me anything, either."
Gar shrugged and stuffed an entire cookie in his mouth. Mallory rolled her eyes playfully and got up. "Ok, but don't complain if you don't like your present," she said.
"I won't," Gar assured her with a grin. Mallory shook her head with a smile and headed to her training room, hoping to get in a few hours of practice before dinner. Ten minutes into her training session, though, Wally poked his head in the room, narrowly missing a fireball. Mallory shut the program down and landed in front of him.
"You doing anything right now?" Wally asked. Mallory raised her eyebrows slightly, and Wally waved a hand to the side. "I mean anything important," he said.
"I guess not, why?" she asked.
He grinned. "You want to go to the store with Rob and me and pick out a birthday present for Gar?" he asked.
She shrugged. "Sure. Let me change and get my wallet." They met in the living room, which was now empty, and zetaed to the Keystone Mall.
"Do you have any ideas?" Mallory asked the boys as they walked down the row of stores.
"I'm gonna get him a video game," Wally told her.
"I'm getting him a laptop for school," Robin said.
"Oh, did you ask Bman about our big present yet?" Mallory asked Robin. He nodded. "Yeah, he said it was up to Megan, so we're all set." Mallory smiled and looked around the shops. She didn't know exactly how she felt about giving Gar official membership on the team, but he'd been going on a few missions with them over the last few months, and there was no denying that he knew what he was doing in the field. If he wasn't her brother's best friend, she wouldn't have any problem with it at all, but they all knew that Peter was more skilled than Gar as far as fighting and strategizing, so now it was getting harder and harder to tell him no, which would only get worse when Gar was officially on the team.
"Do you have any ideas?" Wally asked.
Mallory shook her head. "No. I was going to get him a mask, but now that he's learned how to combine animals, he can just be half monkey in the field. Besides, with the green skin, a mask is kind of pointless."
"Well, how about some headphones?" Robin suggested.
Mallory shrugged. "I was hoping for something a little better than that," she said.
They got to the electronics store and went in. Robin went to look at the laptops, Wally went to look at the games, and Mallory pursued the isles, looking for an idea. She ended up on the headphone aisle and reluctantly picked up a pair of noise canceling headphones like she'd gotten for Nikki. She met her friends at the cash registers and they paid and went out to the fountain in the mall.
"So, are we done?" Wally asked.
"I guess so. You want to get some food?" Mallory asked.
Wally nodded and Robin laughed and said, "Like you even have to ask him." They went to the food court and got some pretzels and sodas and got a table to eat.
"Do you think we're doing the right thing? I mean with the party. I mean, when all the adults disappeared for that day, it was horrible to go through the day not knowing if my parents were gonna be at the house when I got there. I can't even imagine losing them for good. Is he really going to want to celebrate without Marie?" Mallory asked, looking between the boys.
Robin looked to the side, seemingly lost in thought, and Wally shrugged, staring at his pretzel like he'd lost his appetite. "I don't know, it's hard to say. But he might be better off with a distraction than having a quiet day that that's all he's going to be thinking about."
Mallory nodded slowly, turning that over in her head.
"I think it's up to him. If he wakes up and doesn't want a party, we'll shut it down. But I don't even think he's going to know what he wants until the day of, so we'll just plan on a party and keep an eye on him," Robin said.
Wally gave his friend a look, and Mallory shrugged. Before they could think of anything else to say, their comms turned on and Batman called them back to the cave. They gathered their stuff and hurried to the nearest zeta tube.
"This is Paco Testas, a gang member in El Paso, Texas that I've been keeping an eye on for the past few months," Batman said when the team was assembled in the training room.
"How come I've never heard of him before?" Robin asked curiously, eying the holographic picture.
"He's a relatively small threat. El Paso is a small border town, and his gang isn't big enough to warrant any outside intervention. He is not the reason I'm sending you in. The last few months, he's been making deals with bigger gangs and crime lords to help smuggle drugs and guns across the border. One of the mob bosses he's dealing with is Sal Maroni."
Wally's eyebrows raised slightly. "They're getting this stuff all the way to Gotham from the border?" he said.
"And probably selling to punks in every city in between," Conner muttered.
"Testas is supposed to meet with a representative of the Maroni crime family some time in the next day or two. Your mission is to tail him and report his movements back to me. You are not to engage," Batman told them.
"Very well. When do we leave?" Kaldur asked.
"As soon as you're ready," the Leaguer replied.
The leader looked at the team, and they nodded and started off for the bioship.
"Sounds like an easy mission," Tula said, falling into step with Mallory.
Mallory groaned and stopped in her tracks. "Why would you say that? You're going to jinx it," she said, only half kidding.
Tula laughed dismissively. "Oh, come on. Nothing is going to happen just because I observe that the mission seems easy," she said.
"Stop saying that! Now something's going to go wrong," she told the Atlantean.
"Something always goes wrong," Garth pointed out, putting an arm around his girlfriend.
Mallory chuckled and rolled her eyes. "Well, yeah, but we don't need any more bad luck," she said. The couple laughed and took their seats in the bioship, and Megan flew them out of the cave and towards their destination.
"Where are we going to find this guy?" Artemis asked, looking down at the city. It was bigger than Batman had described it, with a city area and suburbs surrounding the taller buildings.
"Batman sent me coordinates to his stash house. If he's going to meet with a client, he's probably going to stop off to pick up a gift," Robin replied, putting the coordinates on a holographic screen so that Megan could see them. She steered the ship to the spot and they hovered over the warehouse in camouflage mode. They sat there for an hour before a car pulled up to the building. Three men got out, went in the building, and came out with a large crate between them. They loaded it in the car and drove off.
"Follow them," Kaldur said.
Megan moved the bioship, keeping it high enough that the men in the car wouldn't have a chance to notice the camouflage in motion. The men stopped in a parking lot at the edge of the city and got out of the car. There was a limousine waiting for them, and two of the men got the crate and put it in front of a man in a suit.
"What are they saying?" Robin asked Conner.
"They're talking about the guns in the crate," he replied.
The crate was loaded into the limousine and the men moved closer.
"Now what are they saying?" Robin asked.
"They're talking about a future deal. Doubling shipments, doubling the price," Conner said.
The men suddenly stopped and looked around.
"What's going on?" Mallory asked, leaning forward to look around the parking lot.
"They heard something," Conner said, scanning the area.
"There," Robin said, pointing to the other side of the parking lot. Before the rest of the team could find what he was looking at, a figure dashed from behind some cars and ran towards the meeting, a gun in one hand. He was wearing a blue suit with a cowl and a big beetle on his chest.
"Oh, great," Artemis muttered.
"Who is he?" Rocket asked.
"I don't know, but he's about to ruin the meeting," Robin replied angrily. He stood up and turned to the team. "Come on, we've got to stop him before he gets someone killed."
They heard shooting outside and jumped to their feet. Megan opened holes in the floor, and the members who could fly went out first. Mallory flamed up and flew towards the gang members. The man in the suit jumped into the limousine and the car sped away. Mallory was busy taking out the gunfire. She watched Artemis try to take out the tires with an arrow, but the car was out of range and the arrow clattered to the cement in the distance. Mallory, Rocket, and Conner soon had the three men they'd been tailing subdued, and the rest of the team had gone after the man in the beetle suit. They came back with him a moment later, Kaldur and Garth each holding an arm to keep him from escaping. Not that he was trying to.
"What was that?" he asked angrily.
"What are you talking about? We probably just saved your life," Wally snapped back.
"I don't need to be saved by a bunch of kids. I've been waiting for this meeting for three months, and you let Maroni's man get away!" the man yelled.
"Wait, what? Who are you?" Zatanna asked.
"I'm the Blue Beetle," he replied, jerking his arm away from Kaldur. Garth let go of his other arm reluctantly.
"You're kidding, right?" Mallory asked. The man glared at her and she rolled her eyes. Why was it so difficult to come up with a good hero name?
"Well, we've been watching them, too, and we wanted them to finish their meeting. We need to get information from them," Robin said.
The man waved a hand at Paco Testas and his two men. "Well, there they are. Get your information."
Robin exchanged a look with the team, and Conner shrugged. "Might as well. The mission's ruined anyway," he said.
Robin sighed and turned to the prisoners. "Why were you meeting with Maroni's man tonight? What's the deal you were talking about? And how long have you been smuggling merch over the border?" he asked, kneeling in front of the criminal.
Testas laughed. "Boy, I've made deals with devils. You think I'm scared of some prison time? I'm not talking."
Robin sighed heavily and rested on his heels, looking back at the team. "I think I'm losing my touch," he said.
"You barely asked him. You didn't even use the Bat Glare," Mallory pointed out.
He stood up and shrugged. "Nothing I do is going to make him talk. He's dealing with at least three of Gotham's biggest crime lords, and that's just in my city. Who knows how many major players he's involved with."
"Well, maybe Miss M could read their minds," Artemis suggested, looking at the Martian for the answer.
Megan's eyes glowed white, then returned to normal. "It'll take me a while to learn spanish, but I can do it if I have the time," she said.
There was a loud crash at the other side of the parking lot and the team turned to the sound. A dozen men were running towards them, armed with guns, chains, baseball bats, and sections of pipes.
"It doesn't look like we're going to have the time," Garth said unnecessarily.
"You don't say?" Zatanna asked sarcastically, eying the small army coming towards them.
"Hey, where'd the beetle guy go?" Wally asked, looking behind the group.
"Some hero, leaving a bunch of kids to face a gang," Rocket grumbled. The gang got closer and some of them started shooting. The team moved to the line of cars for shelter and Mallory peeked through the windows to keep tabs on the enemy.
"Can you really blame him?" she asked grimly.
"Oh, it's not that bad. We've faced worse plenty of times," Tula said, trying to rally the team.
"Should I give you guys some cover?" Mallory asked, looking at Kaldur for his ok. He surveyed the situation, then nodded.
"Do it," he said.
Mallory rolled under the car that she and Garth had ended up behind and started running towards the group, lighting herself on fire as she went. This caught the gang off guard, making them pause just long enough for Mallory to take flight before they started to open fire. She put up her shield, stopping the bullets before they could hit her, and moving closer to them.
"Ok, I think I've got their attention now. Go!" Mallory told the team.
She saw them move out of the corner of her eye and forced the fire to burn brighter, hoping to keep the attention on her long enough for the rest of them to get in position. Garth shot a funnel of water towards the guards, and half of them were sucked in and deposited on the far side of the parking lot. Conner jumped into the fray, and Robin took out two of them, and Mallory landed to help them. Zatanna and Wally disarmed the goons and Mallory and Tula fought back to back in the middle of the fight.
"Told you not to jinx it," she said.
Tula threw a punch and ducked, and Mallory shot a fireball at the goon coming towards the Atlantian. "Ok, you told me. I'll never do it again," she said.
Mallory nodded. "Good. Like I said, we have enough bad luck without adding to it."
"Oh, it could be worse," she said, ever an optimist.
"Don't say it," Mallory said forcefully, and Tula sighed and laughed. "ok, ok," she said, and they took out the last two gang members. They looked around and saw that the rest of the team was already regrouping over the gang leader's unconscious body.
"Well, what now?" Conner asked.
"Wish we knew more about the beetle guy," Robin said, looking around.
"Yeah, I'm sure we'll be hearing about him soon, one way or another," Artemis said.
"What do you mean, one way or another?" Tula asked.
"She means these new vigilantes always end in one of two ways, either the League contacts them or they die before they get a chance," Conner replied, his bluntness putting a pause in the conversation.
Kaldur looked at Paco Testas, his face showing his frustration at how wrongly the mission had gone. "I suppose we should get in touch with Batman. Now that Testas and the Maronis know that the League is watching them, they will be lying low for a while. We will not be able to prove anything now."
Robin nodded and walked a few feet away to contact his mentor. Mallory walked over to where Wally, Conner, Artemis, and Zatanna were standing and she leaned against Zatanna tiredly.
"What's wrong with you?" the magician asked, shifting her weight to better support her friend.
"Nothing, I'm just tired, and now it looks like we're gonna be here longer while Bats decides what to do, then we'll have to wait half an hour while he chews us out about something we had no control over before we can even get out of our suits, then I have to get online and see if any of the colleges I applied to accepted me, then I can finally sleep, if nothing else comes up in all that time."
Wally and Artemis exchanged a look, and the speedster tilted his head. "Inferno," he said in the same brotherly way he would say, 'Mal, you want to talk?', and Mallory sighed and stood on her own two feet.
"I'm just tired of missions going sideways," she said.
"What happened to 'that's half the fun'?" he asked.
Mallory shrugged. "It used to be fun, but lately it's been more than just a little extra fighting. Like with this one, the whole mission was pointless now, and we're gonna get the blame because no one's even heard of Blue Beetle. I wish that just once, we could have a nice, quiet mission that everything went according to plan."
Zatanna nodded. "Yeah, that would be nice," she agreed.
Robin came back to the group. "Batman wants us to bring him with us back to the Hall," he said. Zatanna went to blindfold the gang leader, and Conner went with her to put the man on the bioship, and the rest of the team went to the bioship to get ready to leave.
"Should we be leaving a bunch of guys beat up in a parking lot in a city?" Rocket asked.
Garth shrugged. "Why not?"
Rocket laughed. "Good point," she said.
Conner and Zatanna came from the back of the ship, and Megan started them for home.
"What. Happened?" Batman asked as soon as the team walked in the basement of the hall, their prisoner stowed in the interrogation room. Mallory shot Wally an 'i told you so' look and flopped into one of the chairs to wait for the ok to leave.
"You were to observe and report, nothing more," Batman continued. Kaldur stood his ground, taking the brunt of the tyrant for the team. "Because of your reckless actions, we may have lost the only chance we'll have to prove the connection of this smuggling ring to crime lords across the country, starting with Sal Maroni."
"Batman, we didn't compromise the mission," Robin said, his tone just a hair away from being described as snapping.
Batman glared at his partner, and Kaldur cleared his throat to take the attention away from his younger teammate. "Batman, there was an unforeseen complication that left us no choice but to intervene," the leader said.
Batman turned his attention to Kaldur, waiting for an explanation.
"There was a man waiting at the meeting, he called himself Blue Beetle. He tried to take down the men in the meeting, and we had to step in before someone was hurt, or worse."
Batman backed up slightly. "Blue Beetle?" he repeated.
Mallory looked over at the conversation happening a few feet away, hoping that they would wrap it up soon so she could go.
"Yes, and he said that he had been tracking this meeting for months," Kaldur said.
Batman sighed. "I need to interrogate the prisoner. Team, hit the showers, we'll continue with this when we know more about the shipments."
As soon as Batman was out of the room, Mallory was on her feet and heading to the zeta tube.
"Well, gee, Mal, don't wait for us or anything," Wally called after her.
She stopped and turned around. "You have super speed, why should I have to wait for you?" she asked.
He shrugged. "Cause I'm waiting on them, like a good teammate," he shot back.
Mallory rolled her eyes and waited for the team to get to the zeta tube, and they zetaed to the cave together. The boys met them in the living room.
"Well, how'd it go?" Gar asked.
"Not great," Wally told him.
Megan put an arm around her brother and the team went in different directions, half going to their rooms, the other half going to the community showers, then to change into civies before going home.
Don't forget, review with some suggestions!